In-Depth Monitoring of Anthropic Activities in the Puglia Region: What Is the Acceptable Compromise between Economic Activities and Environmental Protection?

Abstract

In many countries in the world, the conservation of habitats is at risk mainly due to anthropic pressures on the environment. A study was conducted to assess the extent to which sensitive and high nature-value habitats are damaged by high-impact human activities. Some evaluation methods that are applied may not be entirely appropriate to the characteristics of the investigated areas or may be very accurate but provide results that are delayed with respect to the occurrence of the events that created the loss of their characteristics. The main purpose of this study is to optimise some methodologies for monitoring the impacts of human activities making it possible to obtain better results in less time and with much lower costs. This methodology has been applied in two different areas present in the Puglia Region in south-eastern Italy, in the central Mediterranean area. The biotope fragmentation method was applied on coastal dunes, in the province of Brindisi, affected by an important tourist influx. The results of the inclusion, in the evaluation methodology, of the remote sensing of the paths indicate a more real situation on the state of fragmentation of the coastal dunes. The second methodology concerns the monitoring, through topographical profiles obtained from Sentinel-1 DEM images, of active and inactive mining sites, allowing to obtain of very detailed information on the progress of mining activities in a very short time. By implementing these methodologies, it is possible to improve the control of the territory allowing a more detailed analysis in order to safeguard the environment from impacting human activities and avoiding, as much as possible, the occurrence of illegal activities. Finally, compensation factors to ensure that human activities are conducted in a sustainable way are also evaluated.

Monitoring of Coastal Dunes and Lagoons: Important Ecosystems to Safeguard

“…The evaluation of the fragmentation of the dune habitats was carried out with the method used in Ref. [41], which integrates and improves the official method in Ref. [23] with the addition of some details, such as the paths created by tourists that are not contemplated in the official methods, which allow for an evaluation with a greater spatial resolution (Figure 2).…”

“…The fragmentation assessment [41] precisely indicates the presence of a high level of fragmentation of the coastal dune habitats considering the road network and the paths created by tourists (Figure 4).…”

A First Step towards Developing a Decision Support System Based on the Integration of Environmental Monitoring Activities for Regional Water Resource Protection

“…Usually, illegal landfills occur in rural areas where it is difficult to carry out capillary control by the local authorities. Abandoned mining sites such as quarries are often ideal sites for waste disposal [22][23][24]. Quarries can have significant effects on hydrographic regime modelling, mostly in karst areas.…”